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Kazaa/Altnet To Pay Users For Trading Content
mesozoic writes "News.com is reporting that Kazaa and Altnet are unrolling a setup where users are paid to distribute 'authorized content.' The article also mentions something about getting rid of unauthorized files, but is unclear on when and how. I'll be paying close attention to whether this P2P business model pans out; Sharman _has_ shown some shrewd business sense in the past."
Great, now I can get paid to host some companies spam on my computer. Lucky me!
how about this idea instead, they take out gator and any other nasties they include.
they can keep the money, we'll just call it even.
Mike
almost as dumb as getting paid to look at more ads while surfing the internet (a few years back). users were paid so little that it wasn't worth it. and hacking it got your account killed. those bastards.
I write code.
If they try to go legal, they'll get trounced by Apple, disowned by computer users, and end up lie the legal version of Napster...forgotten.
If they stay illegal, they'll get trounced by Apple, keep their user base, and not make a penny for it. Great business sense indeed...
Why do I picture a bad made-for-TV movie (yes, I know that's redundant) where the guys are looking at each other, nodding, and saying, "you know, it's so crazy it just might work..."
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
This sounds even better than when Bill Gates e-mailed me saying he will pay me $5.00 for every person I forward the message to!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
So say someone in the USA downloads my copy of 'That's When Your Heartaches Begin' to complete his Sun Studios collection, he would be a law breaker, a german doing the same would be enjoying his right to peruse material in the public domain, but where would I stand?
Economic Left/Right: -0.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.69
(Insert obligatory SP reference of list of steps with the 2nd last step being "???" and last step being "Profit")
...that it would be easier to just host the content themselves. The real value is in getting listed in the search results, and bandwidth is relatively cheap compared to the complexity of a system that tracks and pays random idiots on the net. Of course, I am probably wrong.
Life in Orange County
Sharman _has_ shown some shrewd business sense in the past.
Yeah, just don't squeeze him.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
I can earn peer points for allowing my computer to be used as a distributed host for someone elses software. From P2P to B2P2P, except I don't have to want the stuff on my computer.
Next stop, My computer will be used as a pr0n server without my knowledge, and since it will be (semi-)encrypted, I won't even necessarily know about it.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
Or if anyone will care.
a world in progress...
Sharman executives say the new system is well worth bundling inside their software, but they say it can be easily removed if users don't wish to participate.
"Altnet's Peer Points is like the spell checker in Microsoft's Word," said Phil Morle, director of technology for Sharman Networks. "It's an integral part of the program that you can choose to use or not."
And it's not like Sharman and Brilliant Digital would ever try to pull a fast one on their users, would they?
GMD
watch this
This model seems like it would apply better to BITTorrent, where companies could provide a link on their website to download a song/movie/whatever. It makes more sense that way, companies could sell content on their website and not have to worry about having the bandwidth available should certain content become extremely popular.
Visualize the world of wine
'They can then host files that are authorized for distribution through this network and will receive "Peer Points" that can be redeemed for prizes every time someone uploads a file.'
One of those banned Shadowbane players already has 768,323,000,000 Peer Points, and plans to redeem them for a Harrier jet.
Because the companies didn't communicate their plans with Kazaa users, the news sparked fears of "spyware"
Spyware fears with Kazaa? Unthinkable!
Are just like money, but more fun!
[walks into amusement park, signs everywhere that say "Peer Points not accepted here"]
Doh!
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
I've got to believe the way this will work is that the users will pay per download and you get the money for it (minus Kaaza's listing fee.) However, why the heck would anyone want to use their bandwidth to allow other people money to download something they've already paid for? If users aren't going to have to pay to download, where's the money comming from? Ads? Sound like a classic 1-2-3 profit scenario to me.
You know, I always thought that the demise of napster would evolve into the great peer-to-peer era where we can all do filesharing without being tracked.
Gnutella proved to be a tad "too difficult" and Kazaa took off (taking Morpheus out in the process). Besides userbase, the only other advantage I see in Kazaa is the metadata. Still, though, when someone is in control of the entire network, you're forced to take what they give you (or run kazaa-lite).
I haven't followed peer-to-peer in quite some time now. Is there someplace that compares all the different services/protocols and rates them for ease of use, etc? I'm currently using gtk-gnutella but would like to know what my other options are. (qtella, eMule, etc?)
Kazaa's move is essentially an implementation of what BitTorrent's creator alluded to in the recent /. story --
getting past the "subversiveness" of file sharing and making it work for everyone, including the creators of the shared content.
Veddy interesting......
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
They specifically said "authorized", not "legal". Thus someone like who is currently sharing stuff that is legal in the US AFAIK, but not necesserily elsewhere (foreign movies not for sale in US), I doubt that I will be allowed to join this program.
To me this sounds like paying independents, and possibly some bigger companies small money for releasing their "preview" files.
This is not about the users of the network, it is about making the network seem more like a usable market or an advertising medium. Although this is not a bad step, I see no benefit to me, so I am staying on Gnutella, perhaps the only usable network that has no commercialism attached to it.
badness 10000
Come on lobster harmonica!
Now if p2p applications didn't make it hard enough to keep unmetered DSL lines alive, this must be the final touch. :)
The question is(as I am not going to install Kazaa and all it's junk on my pc), how much bandwidth would you need to provide in order to make 1$ - power bill.
And I gues it wouldn't make the job for admins easier at the misc, education institutions.
my sig
Even as Altnet launches its ambitious new service, parent Brilliant Digital is struggling on the edge of financial survival. In a federal securities document filed in late May, the company said it had "negative working capital of approximately $4,165"
How many prize cars does -$4,165 buy?
Esteem isn't a zero sum game
But what about ISP's acceptable use policies? If Kazaa is sending you checks, doesn't this violate almost all Acceptable Use Policies that forbid commerical use of residential broadband access?
Looking at my Roadrunner account's AUP:
Unless you have specifically subscribed for commercial grade service, the Road Runner service is provided to you for personal, non-commercial use only. This service cannot be used for any enterprise purpose whatsoever whether or not the enterprise is directed toward making a profit. If it is your intention to use this service for these purposes, please contact your local cable operator to inquire whether commercial Road Runner service programs are available.
I have to believe hosting Kazaa / Altnet content and getting paid for it *could* get some users in trouble.
Actually, that is not entirely so. In Europe, copyright expires 50 years after the death of the author, not 50 years after the work is published and the author is dead. In the US, the current limit is AFAIK 75 years. As a consequence, Elvis' works are not yet in public domain in Europe.
Other than that, you are absolutely right; it raises some interesting questions. For example, the works of George Orwell passed into public domain in Europe two years ago, but when I featured them on my Web site, I was quickly presented with a cease-and-desist letter from a US publisher. Residing in the US and having all my files on a US-based server, I had to oblige.
By unauthorized I assume they mean copyrighted/illegal files. I think it's also safe to assume that while Kazaa has legal uses, it's primary use is trading copyrighted material. If this material is removed for non-paying users, we'll see a dramatic drops in the number of users.
As has happened in the past, with Napster for example, once one peer-to-peer program removes copyrighted files, there is a mass migration to new, alternative peer-to-peer system that does allow it.
As others have mentioned, I hope that the least Kazaa will do for paying customers is remove all the spyware.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
Just keep using Kazaa Lite, that is, until they find a way to disable access for non-authorized versions, and we all end up with "only" eMule and the other networks, which will probably include a modified version of WASTE in the near future.
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
If this really succeeds (I doubt it) are the ISPs going to sit and see people making money of the bandwitdth they provide? They will start charging per byte and that will offset what kazaa pays you.
Sharman executives say the new system is well worth bundling inside their software, but they say it can be easily removed if users don't wish to participate.
"Altnet's Peer Points is like the spell checker in Microsoft's Word," said Phil Morle, director of technology for Sharman Networks. "It's an integral part of the program that you can choose to use or not."
easily removed and integral part are mutually exclusive. Who are they trying to BS?
Getting paid for using my PC resources (bandwidth and HD space)? I don't think so. Have any of these schemes worked in the past?
Paid for browsing
Paid for viewing ads/click-thru's
Paid for buying 'Flooz'?
Yeah, right. All down the tubes, just like this will.
Throw in Brilliant's spyware track record, and this is a non-starter.
Another thing that Kazaa may remember that sometimes people may have more altruistic motives. Take for example Seti@home. Millions of people allow SETI to use their computers to analyze data signals for no charge. It might a little more successful if Kazaa allows points to be donated to charities at a higher rate.
Without more details it's hard to say how this system will really work.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
They are going top _pay_ people, not charge people. Come on, read the article damnit!
CAPS LOCK IS LIKE CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!
Maybe they will have some sort of amnesty whereby you can upload all of your unauthorized files to the **AA, no questions asked.
There's rumored to be an free service in the works that makes this even easier: you just share out your hard drives to the **AA and they'll take care of the housecleaning for you.You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
Just use KazaaLite. And then run Ad-Aware to remove Gator and all the other evil spyware and crap Kazaa installs. Plus, KazaaLite makes you a super user. Supposedly that has benefits...
In reading the article, I can't help but wonder if anyone is really foolish enough to trust Kazaa with their money? As an advertiser, I would always wonder if the paid downloads really happened (was it actually a person downloading or a hackering mimicking downloads for cash?)
As a host, I wouldn't put much faith in actually ever receiving cash from the company. Schemes like this tend to have a history of absconding with the cash.
Of course, it would be nice if there were an easy way for college students to make a little bit of cash by selling their school's bandwidth.
The rewards will range from free access to paid content to sweepstakes entries toward cars and big-ticket cash prizes. The value of the prizes will depend on how many customers Altnet can attract and how much the company can persuade them to offer.
Riiiiight. Thanks but no thanks -- earning access to paid content and the possibility of winning cash prizes isn't enough of a reason to allow BDE to make money using MY hardware and MY connection, whilst potentially affecting the stability of my system. Howzabout I keep on using Kazaa Lite instead?
so, how long do you think it takes before your ISP alters its TOS to make it illegal for you to use your PC for this?
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
I've always found Kazaa slightly disturbing, so I invented the following conspiracy theories about it, using the tried and tested research method of wild conjecture: - 1) Most of the files on Kazaa aren't really transfered peer to peer - there's a huge central repository somewhere of horrible 128kbps quality mp3s full of noise. The noise makes these files sufficiently different from the original songs that Sharman doesn't have to license them. This is why any poor quality songs start downloading instantly, whereas you have to wait approximately forever to find any good quality material. 2) Sharman also regularly publishes versions of it's other popular software package 'Kazaa Lite'. This contains just as much Spyware as standard Kazaa, but it's special 'stealth' Spyware custom written by Sharman. It also crashes randomly. 3) Sharman also publishes 'Diet Kazaa'. This contains twice as much Spyware as either 'Kazaa' or 'Kazaa Lite', and crashes twice as often. However, as a reward, you get a special button that looks like Britney Spears. 4) Any version of Kazaa uses your idle bandwidth and processor power to research dangerous biological toxins and military hardware for the US Department of Defense. Coming soon - the Sharman Tank. 5) Sharman logs all copyrighted files shared over their network, and the users sharing them, so that if they are ever short on money, they can sell the list to the **AA. 6) Sharman is run by a group of aliens, from their spaceship. This is how the company is able to move so swiftly between countries each time legal action threatens.
Yeah, so people get paid to host files that are legit and authorized...this is excellent! I have no fewer than 4 dusty old machines that want to be paid to distribute! With that said, my regularly used machine can continue sharing the 'fun' stuff.
Is the verification for the user sharing IP based? If so, I know for a fact that Verizon doles out IPs to anyone on a local network that wants one.
Crime DOES pay!
high participation level lets you get higher priority in queues. (i.e. you get to cut in line if there are people waiting for a file download) this will allow you to download from more sources and therefore get higher transfer rates. it is to encourage and reward sharing of files.